Dwight Stacy Justice was struggling in jail after being convicted of felony child abuse in the beating death of his 2-year-old stepson, Jeremiah Swafford.

His lawyer thinks the stress of the recent trial could be a contributing factor to his death, apparently from natural causes, Tuesday in the Cleveland County Detention Center.

"He was as gentle a guy as you'd ever meet," said Justice's lawyer, Ted Cummings. "He wasn't doing so well in jail. He smoked; he was overweight. The stresses of the trial laid very heavy on him. He was depressed."

Justice, 45, was awaiting sentencing after a jury found him guilty Jan. 30 of felony child abuse. The panel had found him not guilty of first-degree murder.

His wife, Kathy Lynn Swafford, was also charged with first-degree murder and felony child abuse in Jeremiah's death. She will be tried on March 12 in Lincolnton.

The Cleveland County Sherriff's Office said detention officers were making their rounds around 5:15 a.m. Tuesday when Justice's cellmate alerted them that they might want to check on Justice because he hadn't been snoring as usual. A detention officer checked Justice and found he did not have a pulse.

EMS was notified, and they pronounced Justice dead.

An autopsy will be performed, the Sheriff's Office will do an internal investigation, and the State Bureau of Investigation has been asked to investigate. But it appears Justice died of natural causes, according to Cleveland County Sheriff Alan Norman and District Attorney Rick Shaffer.

Justice cared for son

Cummings read a statement from Justice's family saying that during trial preparation and the actual trial Justice was more concerned about the welfare of his 11-year-old son, Curtis, who suffers from spina bifida.

"Stacy (Justice) had sole custody of Curtis and with help from his family took excellent care of his son," the statement read. "After the jury's verdict and he was incarcerated Stacy wrote a letter saying 'Yes, I am innocent and wrongly convicted, but I believe God controls all things and he put me here to learn something that will make me better for having had to go through this.' "

Speaking through Cummings, Justice's sister, Ginger Poteat, said, "The entire family loved him and misses him terribly."

In February 2010, Justice's first-degree murder and child abuse charges were dropped, but he was re-indicted in June. Then, in August 2010, he was released on a $150,000 bond.

Swafford, 23, has been in jail since 2009.

She and Justice had met by chance in Walmart but the romance was short-lived and tragic. Within months, they went from sweethearts to man and wife to accused killers.

During Justice's trial, which started Jan. 17, Cummings called Swafford as a witness, but she exercised her Fifth Amendment rights and declined to testify. Justice didn't take the witness stand.

Justice repeatedly denied he had anything to do with Jeremiah's death and said he didn't see Swafford do anything.

On Tuesday, Swafford's aunt, Donna Willis of Ellenboro, said she'd talked to Swafford by phone and she didn't seem upset about her husband's death.

"She wasn't crying or nothing," Willis said. "She said, 'Thank God justice is served. He killed Jeremiah.' "

She said, her niece was "nervous" about the upcoming trial.

April Bethea contributed.